With multiple camping possibilities coming up this year, the biggest being Sturgis in August (already reserved our spot!), the wife and I  made the decision to purchase a camper trailer. I originally wanted a Bunkhouse, but found their Sales staff to be spectacularly unhelpful. I even looked for a used Bunkhouse and bought one on eBay, but had problems with the seller and ended up not getting it.

I was getting a bit frustrated with the whole idea. I wasn’t keen on many of the other camper/trailers out there. There aren’t many that meet my personal requirements: I wanted a queen-sized bed, a set up of under 2 minutes, a cooler rack, the option to use an air conditioner without having to cut and sew the tent itself, and I wanted a lot of internal storage. One afternoon when I was browsing motorcycle forums someone mentioned the Aspen Sentry. The Sentry is essentially the Bunkhouse with a few minor changes, most importantly the poles are on the inside. I pondered on the purchase for a while, but then they announced they had a material price increase on the horizon and the trailer prices were going up $1000 on April 1st. I managed to get my order in on March 31st. I went with a black trailer body with a black cover. The tent itself is orange and black. Mine will look very similar to this:

As you can imagine, they were swamped with sales due to the impending price increase so I agreed to a 6 week build time instead of the usual 4. I am making my pick up on May 9th, which is 2 days from now. This means we’ll have it in time for the 100 Mile Ride campout on May 16th and the Legacy Ride campout the week after.

My original plan was to go down and back to El Paso Illinois where the camper is in one day. It’s roughly 600 miles round trip. But every day I looked at the predicted weather, it got worse and worse. This morning I talked it over with the wife and decided I’d take the day off work and get a hotel room in El Paso for the 8th. I did this for a few reasons:

– 600 miles in the wind/rain can be done, but it takes a physical toll. I didn’t want to take a chance on being exhausted from 300 hard miles before I even got there.

– I’ve never pulled a trailer before. I didn’t want to have to learn how on the way home while being exhausted. I want my body and brain to be rested and fully alert.

Once I knew I was going to be staying overnight in El Paso, I remembered that McLean IL is somewhere in the general vicinity. I checked the map and it’s just 40 minutes down the road. This is important because McLean is home to a playable arcade museum. I’ve been there before once with friends and it is an amazing place. I got to play so many games I had only read about. It was a great time, but we only had a few hours there. Tomorrow I should get at least double that if I want.

I’m looking forward to the trip. I’ll upload some pics next week.